


Discovery

by kiichandesu



Series: How to Train Your Shapeshifting Dragon [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Again, Alternate Universe, Fear of Death, Gen, Human Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon), Hurt, Language Barrier, Lore Change, Missing Moments, Movie 1: How To Train Your Dragon (2010), Set during "The Kill Ring" and "Ready The Ships", Shapeshifting, Sort Of, Violent Thoughts, a bit - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 07:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14689542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiichandesu/pseuds/kiichandesu
Summary: Toothless makes a panicked mistake when shit hits the fan in the dragon arena.—Toothless was afraid, and he wasn't thinking. (...)He kept looking at the boy as his mind kept screaming, Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup -"Hiccup - !"It was only when heheardhimself shout it that he realized he wasn’t roaring anymore.





	Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> I published part one almost two months ago, jc  
> It's mostly because university and because this part's not really my favorite. It felt necessary to me, but I can't wait to go into the Riders/Defenders of Berk era with this AU.  
> For now, I hope you enjoy this! xx
> 
> EDIT: I don't have time, energy or inspiration to write chapter two, so this is now a one-shot.

Everything happened so fast, Toothless barely had any time to register all of it.

But it was not a matter of time, really: the moment he heard Hiccup scream, so loud and clear despite the distance between the clearing he was lounging in and the boy’s village, everything else just fell into the background, while all of the dragon’s senses sprung to life in a gasp, his heart pounding like an alarm.

He didn’t waste any time wondering what was happening or straining his ears to hear anything else, and instead launched himself immediately at the rock walls surrounding the clearing.

It only took him mere moments to climb one of them, despite having failed numerous times to do so before without using his tail; he didn’t dwell on it, didn’t even begin to consider why that could be, because that wasn’t the urgent matter at the moment.

The only thing that mattered was getting to Hiccup.

And he did, as quickly as he could.

The large, red-scaled dragon who was attacking the boy might have been both larger and louder than Toothless was, but he was much weaker, both in power and in resolve. The Night Fury scratched and hit and roared at the dragon, which relenteded quite easily; the same couldn’t be said about the _humans_.

They filled the arena, shouting and running and showcasing the same amount of hostility he was used to from creatures like them. He could feel Hiccup’s hand on his face, his voice begging him to leave, but if the boy honestly thought _that_ was an option, he was sorely mistaken.

Toothless saw red when a human, a tall, large man with hair the color of fire, began to approach them, his shoulders wide and his hands balled up in fists, ready to attack. Everything about the man screamed **_danger_** , and danger was the last thing he wanted within a mile from Hiccup right now. Or ever.

He was the first one to attack.

The man fell down under Toothless’ weight, but didn’t flinch when the dragon roared in his face. And then, out of all the voices that were yelling all around him at that very moment, the Night Fury heard one – the only one that mattered – shouting, afraid, desperate:

“Toothless, no!”

Everything became both clear and foggy all at once. Hiccup’s voice was clear, loud, as though the boy had shouted in the middle of an empty field at night. Once again, however, in its clearness, the boy’s yell drowned everything else, making the rest of Toothless’ surroundings fade behind a wall of concern for his friend.

The dragon turned to look at the boy, a sense of confusion and wonder making him forget what exactly he’d been doing up to that point, just for a moment – but a moment was enough, and before he could do anything about it he was on the ground, all of the man’s weight on him, soon to be joined by many more humans.

He heard Hiccup scream again, listened helplessly to the fear and despair in those shouted “No!”s, the way his voice broke a little when Toothless roared back. The dragon struggled against the various hands that were grabbing him and holding him to the ground, but his mind was focused on Hiccup, on his small figure, frozen in place as if he didn’t know what to do, and on his eyes, green and wide and watery.

Toothless was afraid, and he wasn't thinking.

It only took a second, maybe even less than that. He saw Hiccup’s expression fall in horror, felt the humans’ grip on him falter in shock only to become firm and painful again just a wink later, heard the sound of the man that was sitting on him as he almost fell off his increasingly smaller body, noticed as the hand holding his muzzle was lifted with a gasp of stupor from its owner.

But he kept looking at the boy as his mind kept screaming, Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup -–

“ _Hiccup!_ ”

It was only when he _heard_ himself shout it that he realized he wasn’t roaring anymore.

 

—

 

He hadn’t meant to transform. Of course he hadn’t.

And yet here he was, in his small, lean, weaker human-looking body, heavy chains around his arms and legs, a wooden collar tight around his neck, metal weights attached to his wings and his tail. All of this on top of a wheeled wooden board sitting on a ship ready to set sail.

They hadn’t given him the time to change back, and the shackles they had put him in were way too tight and sturdy for him to do it now.

He wasn’t particularly surprised about it. If your enemy suddenly turns into a weak, much more fragile version of himself, it’s only natural you’d want to keep him that way, even if the mere existence of that form shocked you to your very core, which he was sure was what had happened for most of the humans standing around him now.

Which didn’t mean he wasn’t extremely angry about it. “Anger” probably didn’t cut it, actually. To be honest, however, anger was also the last thing on his mind.

He couldn’t believe he had transformed in front of humans. Humans that were attacking him at the time, no less. Humans who wouldn’t have hesitated to behead him on the spot if they didn’t need him to be on this ship, right now. Humans, some of the most dangerous creatures imaginable, had him now at their mercy in his weakest state. 

Because of Hiccup. He had done it because of Hiccup.

Shit, what if they had done something to Hiccup?

They had taken Toothless away immediately after they’d managed to tie him up properly, one of the men lifting him with ease thanks to his new, more compact form; he had no idea what had become of the boy after that.

Was he okay? Did they hurt him? Were they _going_ to hurt him?

He could feel himself growling at the thought when he saw the man with red hair board on the ship. Oh, if he had only dared to touch Hiccup...

The man didn’t seem intimidated by the dragon's glare. If anything, he seemed to grow more hostile himself by the second, returning the expression with narrowed eyes. (Green, Toothless noted, for some reason he couldn’t put together. His eyes were green.)

The man grabbed the collar around the dragon’s neck and brought their faces close enough to each other that the dragon could feel his breath against his nose.

“Bring us home, devil.” the man had the gall to order, immediately releasing his grip in such a way that would be accurate to describe as throwing Toothless’ head away in disgust.

There were many, many things Toothless would have like to say right then, but Hiccup hadn’t gotten around to teach him how to say any of them in a language the man would understand, so he didn’t bother trying.

None of them were pretty.

He looked at the man as he walked towards the front of the ship, and decided against growling again, because he knew he’d go unheard of flat-out ignored, but he didn’t refrain for staring daggers in his back, only wishing he could just... bite his head off.

Blast him with fire.

Scratch him open with his claws.

Do something. Anything.

Kill him, before the man could do the same to him. 

Because that was what was going to happen.

This man was going to kill him.

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought, and his wings trembled because of it. The movement hurt under the weight of the chains. He wanted to get out of them.

He wanted to get out of those chains, and blast every living creature on this ship into pieces.

Fly away. Fly back to Hiccup. Not that he could do that _without_ Hiccup. 

Hiccup. Were they going to kill _him_ , too? ...He didn’t want to think about it.

He looked at the man again. He let his eyes wander to the other man next to him, who was slightly smaller than him but still incredibly larger than Hiccup, and instead of fire had sunshine in his hair.

Blondie was staring right at him. As a matter of fact, most of the humans on the ship were, and kept doing so even after they’d already set sail. Even though the red haired one, obviously in charge, had seemed unfazed by Toothless’ change of appearance – or at least managed to hide his surprise in favor of treating him with as much contempt as he would have any regular dragon – the same couldn’t be said for the rest.

Toothless ignored most of them and stared back at the blond one, even though he knew his eyes were openly showcasing just how scared he was. He wasn’t sure what drove him to this one in particular; maybe it was because of how close he was standing to the chief, or maybe the missing leg and arm made him look a bit less menacing than others, or maybe it was because his expression looked way less hostile than most other gazes the dragon had had the displeasure of crossing with his own.

He looked almost... concerned. 

The man was the first one to break eye contact, moving towards the redhead and speaking to him in muttered words. Toothless let his head hang towards the ground, trying to rein in the shivering he was still experiencing and trying to focus on the anger boiling in his stomach rather than the fear that was rattling the rest of him. 

Anger was reassuring, and even though it was harder to maintain, it put a much lighter strain on his mind.

He didn’t have to struggle for long, however: it was only moments after that his consciousness faded, and all that his mind could register was the desperate need to get _There_. 

 

—

**Author's Note:**

> In about five years insight will be a bitch to you, Toothless ~~I'm sorry~~
> 
> The rest of the story is about the same as the movie until Hiccup wakes up without a leg (not that this was all that different), just add a transformation back into dragon form in there, so I'm going to skip all of that.  
> See you later! xx


End file.
